Potential AIDS Cure Discovered By Australian Scientists

A potential AIDS cure may be on the horizon after a discovery by scientists in Australia, and researchers at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research may have found a way to turn crippling HIV cells self-destructing using gene therapy.

The potential AIDS cure was initially pegged during research back in 2007 by Dr. David Harrich and his team, and the researcher, who has been working to unlock a cure for the disease for more than 20 years, tells the Australian Times:

“With money running out, I had my PhD student try one more experiment in late 2007. The experiment was to test if Nullbasic could render HIV non-infectious. The student came back and said it worked, so I told him to do it again and again and again. It works every time.”

According to the paper, the potential AIDS cure could work in such a way that the damaging virus is nullified and unable to replicate, halting the devastating effects the disease has on a sufferer’s immune system:

“By modifying the proteins that make up HIV into a mutated form, referred to as Nullbasic, Harrich’s research team have determined that it is possible to block the process of reverse transcription that allows HIV to damage the immune system. This would ultimately render the virus inert, preventing the condition of those infected with HIV from deteriorating further.”

Harrich explains that the potential AIDS cure “instead of assisting the virus … actually impedes virus replication and does it quite strongly.”

The potential AIDS cure is set to be tested on mice in 2013, and clinical trials for the method could occur in the next ten years.